Menu

A vintage treasure

I got a book in the mail. A package. Packed up so well that I needed help from my husband to get it open. Truly. It was wrapped, and wrapped and wrapped some more. Then got an extra outer wrap. Put in a box with layers of paper. Finally to be sealed off with transparent ducktape. It was wrapped to discourage any thief from stealing it on the way from Illinois to England.
That’s how far it came. All the way East. By plane. Even though it seemed like it came on the slow boat from China.
Worth the wait? YouBetYa…
First of all it was burgundy, and those of you who know me KNOW that burgundy is my favorite colour in the universe. I could have burgundy everywhere. Kitchen, living room, bed room, name it and I burgundify it for you.
Taking a closer look it shows with how much crafmanship the book has been made. Measuring a solid 8×10 inch, it’s not too bulky.
The soft velvet cover asks to be petted. Stroked. Gently. It feeds my soul just to touch it. Someone before me must have petted it a lot, because it has some bald spots, but they are only minor. And add to the emotional value of it in my eyes.
I bet my youngest son would know exactly how they made the fabric. How it was woven. It has a delicate flower pattern on the bottom, under the word Album. Yes, I gasped for breath when I first saw it coming out of the last layer of tissue paper.
Then there is the lock, or clasp, how do you call a thing like that in English? It adapts to the width of the book, coils make the lock tense up. It blew my mind away.
We are talking photoalbum here… Somewhere, someone must have crafted the lock with love and knowledge. A perfect combination.
A fitting book to celebrate expensive photographs, dear to a person’s heart, therefore a book with added security and beauty to preserve into the future.
Another proof of excellent craftmanship is the binding.
Heavy, sturdy, two pieced binding so that the pages can lay flat, gasp, gasp… The outside… Inside, I find frames. Like they used to do 100 years ago.
Photographs were for rich people, the books for even richer people. No wonder that so much work was put in to action to deliver a top notch experience.
Two different frames, pages with one big slot and pages with four tiny oval slots. The photograph slides in through a slit in the top layer of cover paper.
Some of the frames are damaged, but easy to repair. Nothing that can’t be cured with a bit of golden matte gel…
It also had 3 photographs loosely tucked in between the pages, if one can call them that way. People I don’t know, who were they? A young man, a baby and a woman. Mystery.

The only thing to do now is decide if I will use it to make a travel book or keep it intact or as intact as it’s now and just slide in old photographs.
I did buy it to make a Full Tilt Boogie travel journal of our trip to the States in January… Somehow I am a bit hesitant though to work with it…
Sigh. Moss help me decide please…

Subscribe

Instagram

The user currently does not have any images...

About little things in a little life in a BIG country. I am happy to see you. I’m even happier if you make your presence known by leaving a comment if you have time and energy. If you don’t, I will still write and will still love you. Thanks for stopping by!

CatherineA flemish speaking Belgian living in New Mexico, USA, married to my Mr Wonderful. I breath photography. That's what I do: logging my camera around. And snap. Call me snaphappy!